Elway’s master plan? We don’t know — and that’s a good thing

The beginning of the free agency period and the new league year on March 14 was supposed to bring some clarity to the future of the Denver Broncos.

Who they signed was supposed to indicate the path the Broncos were going to take to get ready for the 2018 season moving forward. With the fifth pick in the draft, a clear plan is a critical. They can’t afford to miss.

The Broncos went out and grabbed “their guy” Case Keenum when the free-agency period started, but their plan for the draft is still unclear. That’s just fine President of football operations and general manager John Elway shouldn’t make it obvious, anyway. With such a high pick, you don’t want to show your cards too early and have your target picked by another team.

All you have to do is check the many mock drafts that have hit the internet in the last week and one thing becomes obvious: no one knows what the Broncos are going to do.

That’s both good and bad. On one hand, it appears that the Broncos are confident enough in Keenum to use the draft to rebuild some other areas of the roster that desperately need it. On the other hand, they would kick themselves for years to come if neither Keenum or Lynch don’t work out, and they miss out on one of the quarterbacks from this year’s big four — Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Josh Allen and Baker Mayfield.

If the Broncos do decide to draft their second quarterback in the first round in three seasons, Keenum wouldn’t be surprised by the decision.

“I’ve been around long enough to know that anything is a possibility in this league. I was a starting quarterback when a team drafted somebody No. 1 overall and traded a bunch of draft picks,” Keenum said at his introductory press conference. “I know how that goes. I know that my teammates, my coaches and the front office, everyone is doing everything they possibly can to be the best Denver Broncos that we can possibly be.”

Aside from adding Keenum during the first wave of free agency, the Broncos really haven’t done much else to dramatically change the roster. The Broncos are going to look a lot different next season, and that’s probably for the best. Becoming stagnant in the NFL is never good, and the Broncos appear to be headed in a different direction after back-to-back disappointing seasons.

As for which direction they’ll go? Fans won’t find out until April 26.